1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to nozzles for providing a uniform reagent flow after one of the reactants has traveled variable distances to a chamber, and more particularly to providing a uniformly dissociated iodine flow in a high energy state to a laser cavity where the singlet delta oxygen reactant travels to the iodine injector over a variable distance from the oxygen generator.
2. Description of the Related Art
Chemical oxygen iodine lasers typically perform at optimum efficiency when the dissociation fraction of iodine in the laser cavity is approximately 85%. Either higher or lower dissociation levels result in degraded performance. The oxygen generator produces singlet delta oxygen, O.sub.2 (.sup.1 .DELTA.), which is mixed with iodine prior to entering into the laser cavity. Between the iodine mixing point and the laser cavity reactions occur between the O.sub.2 (.sup.1 .DELTA.) and the iodine which produce dissociated iodine in a high energy state. The distance provided is selected to achieve the desired level of dissociation at the concentrations and conditions of the mixed streams. For relatively low power chemical oxygen iodine lasers the oxygen generators are relatively small, leading to correspondingly small variations in the concentration and conditions of the O.sub.2 (.sup.1 .DELTA.) at the point at which iodine is mixed. For larger devices using larger oxygen generators these variations can be substantial and can impact laser performance.